Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Indians, Provided With Harpoons And Long
Slender Reeds, Surround The Pool Closely; And Some Climb Up The Trees,
The Branches Of Which Extend Horizontally Over The Surface Of The
Water.
By their wild cries, and the length of their reeds, they
prevent the horses from running away and reaching the bank of the
pool.
The eels, stunned by the noise, defend themselves by the
repeated discharge of their electric batteries. For a long interval
they seem likely to prove victorious. Several horses sink beneath the
violence of the invisible strokes which they receive from all sides,
in organs the most essential to life; and stunned by the force and
frequency of the shocks, they disappear under the water. Others,
panting, with mane erect, and haggard eyes expressing anguish and
dismay, raise themselves, and endeavour to flee from the storm by
which they are overtaken. They are driven back by the Indians into the
middle of the water; but a small number succeed in eluding the active
vigilance of the fishermen. These regain the shore, stumbling at every
step, and stretch themselves on the sand, exhausted with fatigue, and
with limbs benumbed by the electric shocks of the gymnoti.
In less than five minutes two of our horses were drowned. The eel
being five feet long, and pressing itself against the belly of the
horses, makes a discharge along the whole extent of its electric
organ. It attacks at once the heart, the intestines, and the caeliac
fold of the abdominal nerves.
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